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Gas-Phase Conformational Map of the Amino Acid Isovaline
E M Neeman1, I León1, E R Alonso1
1Grupo de Espectroscopia Molecular (GEM), Edificio Quifima Laboratorios de Espectroscopia y Bioespectroscopia, Parque Científico Universidad de Valladolid, 47011, Valladolid, Spain.
Abstract:
Four conformers of the non-proteinogenic α-amino acid isovaline, vaporized by laser ablation, are characterized by Fourier-transform microwave techniques in a supersonic expansion. The comparison between the experimental rotational and 14 N nuclear quadrupole coupling constants and the ab initio calculated ones provides conclusive evidence for the identification of the conformers. The most stable species is stabilized by an N-H⋅⋅⋅O =C intramolecular hydrogen bond and a cis-COOH interaction, whereas the higher-energy conformers exhibit an N⋅⋅⋅H-O intramolecular hydrogen bond and trans-COOH, as in other aliphatic amino acids. The spectroscopic data herein reported can be used for the astrophysical purpose in a possible detection of isovaline in space.
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